Field data collection was completed in an afternoon. I changed the study design to a presence/absence survey rather than measuring plant heights. Using the frame of a torn window screen as a quadrat (screen was removed first), I sampled 30 replicates across three east-west transects (10 replicates each). The northernmost transect was in the “dry” zone, a grass-dominated ecosystem. The middle transect was in the “moist” zone adjacent to the marsh. The southernmost transect was in the “wet” marsh zone. There were no problems implementing the sampling design.
A couple of quadrats in the “dry” zone contained the study organism, although only small, single plants.
In one section of the “dry” zone the field north of the walking path was used for market gardens in the past and shows signs of human cultivation such as shorter grass and fewer plant species. This past human manipulation of the environment may be contributing to a lack of the study organism in that area.